News Desk: Release Dates Galore for Wii U’s Q1 2013

The Cave, Double Fine’s highly anticipated adventure game, hits Wii U on January 22. Ubisoft’s Rayman Legends will be following soon after on February 26. A three-level demo of the game is already available on the console’s eShop.

The monstrously popular Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will finally reach foreign shores on March 16, with a European release set three days later. It will be available for both Wii U and 3DS, though only the former will allow for voice chat– via the GamePad’s microphone– among online hunting parties. The full game will also be available on digital release, no trip to the store required. In the meantime, aspiring hunters can get their hands on the demo on February 21. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is a four player game, and will allow for limited cross-platform play involving one Wii U and three 3DS systems.

Speaking of the 3DS, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon rises on March 24. Known as Luigi’s Mansion 2 outside of North America, its release dates outside of that market are still vague. Can you believe we haven’t seen Luigi chatter his teeth in his own title since the original Luigi’s Mansion, an inaugural title for GameCube in 2001?

In sadder and more high-profile news, homegrown titles such as Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, Game & Wario, and Wii Fit U have all been pinned with a nebulous “first half of 2013” date. On the brighter side, don’t those games titles look pretty lined up like that?